Snow brakes are used for preventing large sheets of ice or snow from sliding and falling from roofs, harming persons or objects below.
Typically, snow accumulates on a roof. The snow may melt from above by warmth from the sun, or from below by warmth from the roof. Water flows through the snow and runs along the roof and drips off edges of the roof.
Particularly on standing seam metal roofs, the water makes the roof surface slick, causing heavy sheets of snow or ice to slide along the roof. Snow brakes are used so that the snow bank or ice sheets formed on the roof are retained until they melt or slide off the roof in small pieces.
Snow brakes have been designed for attaching to the flat surface of the roof, and some snow brakes have been designed for attaching to roof seams.
Multipart snow brakes are expensive. Snow brakes which attached to the flat surface of the roof make holes through the roof and promote water entry and destruction of the roof and its supporting surface. Snow brakes which attach to the seams of roofs penetrate the seams or tend to deform the attachment parts of the snow brakes rather than deform the seams for locking the snow brakes on the roof.
A need exists for snow brakes which may be easily and inexpensively constructed, and which provide adequate support for snow and adequate locking to seams.